-have heard Conor Oberst's other material and already decided that you cannot tolerate his voice (because his voice is worse in this album)
Buy this album if:
-you already know and love Conor Oberst
-are more of a "words person" than a "music person". I havent heard the two albums he just came out with, but excluding those since i cannot judge them, "Lifted" is his best musically. It is argueable if this is his best lyrically, but I think it is his most intimate.
-buy this album even if you have emo-allergies. I cannot stand 99% of anything that would remotely be classified under "emo" except for this, which most would agree could be call "emo-folk" with more emphasis on the "folk" than the "emo".
-you think that the idea of a guy recording on a four-track in his basement is cool.
I understand that many people will not like this album. And I understand why, but i personally love it, and many other people will too. If my opinion was the only one that mattered I would have given it a 5 star rating, rather than a 4 star."
Early Bright Eyes
blueroses | United States | 05/31/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I'm a huge fan of Bright Eyes so of course I loved this album. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, as I consider Bright Eyes to be more of an acquired taste than anything. This album in particular took a while to grow on me. A lot of people don't like Conor's voice, and I didn't really like it when I first heard it, but it really grew on me and now he is one of my favorites. About this album, the recording is really low quality (it was recorded... in his basement!) and...well, he was really young when he recorded these songs. Before you judge him too harshly, these songs were recorded when he was 15 or 16 years old. I like a lot of the songs on this album. Some of them aren't that great, admittedly. There are some really great songs on here like 'Patient Hope in New Snow', 'Saturday as Usual', 'Falling out of love at this volume', 'Puella quam amo est pulchra', 'a celebration upon completion', 'All of the Truth', 'Lila', and 'Feb. 15th'. I like this album and I would recommend it to anyone who was already a big fan of Bright Eyes' later work. I think you would have to be a fan already to be able to appreciate this album. When I consider how young he was when this was recorded, I'm impressed.The other great thing about this CD is the review printed on the CD itself."
Beauty captured
mar | ontario, canada | 11/23/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I'm sick of hearing that this Bright Eye's album: A collection of songs is an acquired taste. Nothing about it is acquired except maybe acquiring the money to buy this beautiful record. Conor Oberst's voice is perfection, each slight change in tone perpetuates a completely new and raw emotion. Mind you much of the time those emotions aren't the cheeriest, but thats whats great about this album. Misery loves company, so when you feel a bit crappy its a great friend. ie. in feb 15 he sings 'but i guess that its typical to cling to memories you'll never get back again and to sort through old photographs of a summer long ago or a friend you used to know'. screw sorting through the pics of old pals just bring out this album and get ready to make a new friend."
Give it time
al | uk | 05/21/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"i've been a fan of saddle creek artists for years but living in england has made it hard to buy the albums/lps. and so with this being conor's least famous (if that's the correct word) release, i bought this after every other major full length or ep. by that time bright eyes had been my favourite band for a long time. i think this is why i'm able to appreciate this collection so much. only after having an album or a two for a few months are you able to appreciate conor's voice. some people will always hate it. but i think if you can relate to his music well enough you come to actually prefer his voice being so scratchy and yet full at times. and let's be fair here - the kid was between the ages of 15 and 17 when he recorded these things. personally, i love the anologue crapness you get from early 4 track recordings, and i love that here is a kid experimenting with instruments he's not a pro at playing. maybe i love it because i'm 16 myself and respect everything that conor does, or maybe some of the songs truly are just brilliant in that teenager sort of way. i also like the quirkiness of how he put a horrible review of it on the front of the cd. to me that sort of means if you dont like bright eyes that's fine; conor sort of likes that at times. whatever it is, i recommend only buying this album if and when you're acquainted with bright eyes already and even then just give it a chance because it might take a while. it's possible to get used to the poor quality recording and start to like that about it. give it a go if you like 'when the curious girl realizes she is under glass' fevers and mirrors version. and just remember his age. nobody said this was a masterpiece."